Short Term Goals by Marissa Pratt
Ensuring that each general capability and cross curriculum priority is included in the curriculum being taught. Tropics College incorporates goals into their teaching that will help to ensure their students success in the current society, including that of multiculturalism. The three key areas are that the students are taught how to process the understanding and skills relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture, Asian perspectives and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and Sustainability. By teaching these aspects Tropics College have integrated multiculturalism of the Asian and Indigenous communities. To improve the curriculum presented in Tropics College’s program year fives were specifically looked at as that is seen as an important age where they are starting to understand the world and the implications that multiculturalism presents. According to Grant (1978) the expression of “Education that is multicultural means that the entire educational program is redesigned to reflect the concerns of diverse cultural groups.” (Sletter & Grant, 1999). Throughout the English curriculum students are taught different aspects that enable them to strive towards the schools vision: “Education that is Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist- creating students that can be the change needed for a multicultural and equitable future for all.” It was noted that Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia was missing throughout the entire year five curriculum although ethical behaviour was included in all four of the terms. This implies that learning about Australia’s relationship with Asia is not necessary in year five. However, considering Australia’s increasing relationship with Asia it would be considered unwise to neglect this area of study. The staffroom goal is improving Tropics College’s Year 5 English curriculum to be more culturally inclusive. The main aim of the short term staffroom goal is to gradually increase the number of subjects which incorporate cultural cross-curriculum priorities in order to increase the number of culturally responsive students. To implement this properly critical theory should be used to understand social behaviour and through the lessons modify this behaviour. Coalescing across boundaries is considered important as, according to Sletter and Grant (1999), “race, social class, and gender often should not be treated as separate issues. ... not only do these issues all involve common concerns of oppression, but people are all members of gender, a social class, and a racial group” (Sletter & Grant, 1999). This statement is saying that no matter how hard we try to separate these issues of race, gender, and social class it is not able to be separated in the classroom. Students should be made aware of these factors and properly educated which is what the short, middle, and long term goal are striving to achieve. By implementing the subjects that were missed in term two of year five the teachers are closing the gap between the students and the community. Tropics College’s aim, to create students that can be the change needed for a multicultural and equitable future, will only be achieved through the use of subjects related to this goal in the classroom. To further the schools vision a middle and long term goal has to be made by the teachers to further the probability of a multicultural and coalesced community. Medium Term Goal